Uncovering Blocks

How can you hear my song
If I don’t sing?
How can I tell you my love if I don’t speak?What is in my heart
Can be shown, tasted, heard, felt and sensed
in a thousand ways
A thousand voices are mine
A million miles of connection
Are mine to show and yours to receive

What can I say? This woman has opened the trap door to the ogres of the world and freed us – mind you we each have to take our own step – to be who we will be.
To get the full benefit is to suspend all judgement.
To get the full benefit is to look in the mirror with love and respect.

Join me in adding to the voices of authenticity, of caring for the hearts and minds of us all.

I wrote these words today looking for a simple meditation on spiritual life. Looking for simple, relational, believable.
I wanted to write it on something and, being in my studio where there are no straightforward pens, pencils or paper for making notes, everything is art related, I saw a notebook I take with me on retreats. Flipping through the pages I realized what I had just written was perfectly illustrated for me by me some years ago.
I’ve heard consistency is the hobgoblin of the little mind and mostly I subscribe to that but today I was thankful to find I had already illustrated something I had just written.

Oneness

As I open to the world
I see I belong
I cease the fight to belong
As I discover how deeply I am
connected
As I trust I am seen
I no longer feel the need for any
effort to be noticed by the world

And it’s not Eli! I just put his lovely face up because when we see, even for a moment, something we like in a category we love, our cells relax, take in more oxygen, and have a chance at some rest and recuperation they’ve been trying to get.
Since the slightest change of mood is picked up by every cell we should really feel paranoid about what’s in our minds. If we could flip the scary stories we tell ourselves; all the denial, envy and pain to seasides and mountains, contentment and frolic, we could save ourselves so much aggravation.
Let’s say we know that our 50 trillion cells (by last count) pick up our slightest change of mood and share actively in our thoughts. We know that what we think catalyzes change in our bodies and over time our mirrors talk. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to pay some attention? Meditation vs. face cream or lipo. Smiles vs. iffy digestion or gimpy backs.
What would you give for some peace of mind? How would it be to see a solution to every problem? To know when you need help, shouldn’t go that route, or can do it yourself? Most of us can access our wisdom, our strength is right here, now, ready. It’s simple, not necessarily easy.
The strategy for this is to notice what is right about us, our life, our health, our spirit. Treat yourself as if you were a beloved and very interesting child/person/animal. Listen with love and curiosity, let patience be your guide. Let this moment, this one here now, be your guide. Then take the next step and the next. It’s not about wallowing in the moment, but letting the moment take you, inform you, love you, forgive you.

Doubt is not the opposite of faith, it is one element of faith.Paul Tillich

Often in my coaching practice I find myself speaking of faith. There is resistance to this word, this concept. It’s scary. It requires what I call air-time – call it a leap. Time when you are moving forward, gently or rapidly, and you have to keep going no matter what. I have kayaked backwards through some very “interesting” rapids, nothing to be done but do what I could as well as I could. In this case the kayak has the same shape coming and going – it was not sea faring – and the only difference is that I had to have a great twist for longer than I would have chosen.
Doubt was not on my mind. Neither was faith. I was all action. But in other moments when I have had time to contemplate, doubt has been friend and foe. Doubt has kept me from making sudden decisions – hasty words and actions. I think doubt has made me look wiser than I am and it has made me wiser in the process.
There is this drive we all share for unity, oneness, wholeness. We are often puzzled and struggle with our own complexity. That we might have an unsavory thought, not be the kind of person we want to be all the time. My companion Liam is a great example of just this. He is the sweetest, snuggliest, kindest of dogs. And then going out the door he has to be the awfullest, most inconsiderate, impossible, neck-biting maniac to Jules, the stately greyhound. Or barking and throwing himself against the window – the screen is not yet fixed – at Momacita the feral cat who teases him relentlessly.We think we would like to live in a black and white world. One in which bad guys looked bad and good guys… But that’s a little like Midas. When we wish for something to be always true we forget times we don’t want everything the same color. Our own diversity is our friend. Even when we feel we lack something in the moment. In the next moment we might get exactly what we want.

True or not, truth or dare, for me Oprah has become the Highground, along with TED talks. And now my hero Brene Brown will be on Super Soul Sunday. I first saw her on TED. Pretty much nothing rattles my cage – for good or ill – I’m classed as “steady” and most of the time that’s true. That said, I am really excited about these ideas. The mission of people like Oprah and Brene, their ability to speak out, show up and expose themselves is truly a gift.
What carries me along with the current of these pop and popular venues is the high ground they take. These are some of the most moral, vulnerable, open, expressive and passionate human beings I have ever seen. I feel so blessed to be in a world where these ideas and values can be shared. I know it’s getting better and better here on planet earth and I know this kind of dissemination of ideas is as important as Johnny Appleseed and honey bees.

for each new moment here on earth
another moment fades
moments pass us – well, like moments
the mere mention is one
push the space bar and it’s gone
another here
one there
each one countable and accountable
each one a weave into the next
this is how we grow
no other way to do it

Pam White is a life coach, painter, photographer, poet and the founder of Pam White is a life coach, painter, photographer, poet and the founder of Insight Coaching. She brings over thirty years of meditation practice to her work with clients.Insight Coaching. She brings over thirty years of meditation practice to her work with clients.

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